Texas Sen. John Cornyn has emerged bruised but politically secure from the bitter partisan wrangling over federal spending and Obamacare.

The second-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership angered some tea party activists and supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with his refusal to embrace Cruz’s daredevil tactic of withholding funding and shutting down most federal operations unless Congress agreed to defund the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Cornyn’s stance drew plenty of scrutiny from conservatives during the partial government shutdown.

“This opens the door for a tea party candidate to challenge Sen. Cornyn, especially since Sen. Cruz has refused to endorse him,” said Larry Hufford, a political science professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

George Rodriguez, South Texas state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, detected “a lot of discontentment” with Cornyn. “Damage is pretty deep and wide. I don’t know how he is going to recover from this.”

Cornyn “should well remember the result of the David Dewhurst-Ted Cruz face-off” that handed Cruz an unexpected victory in the Republican primary battle for the Senate nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Rodriguez said.

Yet despite some activists’ grumbling, Cornyn enjoys enormous political advantages across Texas as he prepares for his reelection campaign for next year. The second-term senator does not appear to be nearly as vulnerable as Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was last year when Cruz waged a yearlong insurgency to overtake the Establishment front-runner for Hutchison’s seat.

For a start, Cornyn has election mechanics on his side. The fast-approaching December deadline for getting on the ballot for the March 4 primary doesn’t leave much time for a late starting, tea party-backed challenger to tackle Cornyn from the right.

Nor have credible challengers emerged. Eric Wyatt, of Rockport, an Iraq War veteran and tea party favorite, has started campaigning on a platform that includes “we have our God-given rights.” Wyatt’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission dated last March showed he had raised $25.

Dwayne Stovall, of Cleveland, has created a website to tout his candidacy and claim that Cornyn has “a long history of voting with the Democrats in favor of raising the debt and growing the size of federal government.”

Cornyn, 61, clearly is leaving nothing to chance.

He has enlisted Cruz’s support — if not his endorsement — by extending a helping hand.

Cornyn, former chairman of the Senate Republicans’ national campaign operation, arranged to have Cruz appointed as a vice chairman of the enterprise. Cornyn relinquished his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee to make way for Cruz, as well as helping maneuver the Harvard-trained lawyer onto the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Cornyn also is drawing upon success in 15 contested elections since starting out as an elected judge in San Antonio in the 1980s, including repeated statewide elections since 1990 as a state Supreme Court justice, attorney general and twice as senator. Cornyn easily won re-election in 2008 with 55 percent of the vote.

“It’s been half of a century since a Texan has been a party leader in the U.S. Senate,” said Rep. Pete Olson, R- Sugar Land. “All Texans should be proud that in less than two terms, John Cornyn is in a position to restore a conservative Texan to the highest leadership position in the U.S. Senate.”

Olson, who was Cornyn’s chief of staff for four years, added that the senator “has always fought for conservative Texas values. Being a national leader … gives him a chance to show America why it should strive to be like the Lone Star State.”

Cornyn is highlighting his endorsement by the Texas Right to Life Political Action Committee. “As President Obama’s political machine sets their sights on turning our state (Democratic), we are grateful for the support once again of pro-life Texans across the state,” Cornyn said.

He has raised $10.4 million for his reelection drive as of Sept. 30, with $6.9 million still on hand. Cornyn raised $9.8 million for his 2002 race and $19.3 million for his first re-election race in 2008.

Some of the latest donations are being used to underwrite early campaign advertising such as a television ad entitled “Conservative Like Texas.”

Cornyn pitches himself as “a proud conservative” who has accurately reflected 26 million Texans’ “view of the world and our role as a model for the rest of the country.”

The advertising targets hundreds of thousands of newcomers who have moved into Texas since his last election, Cornyn explains. “I would daresay ‘John Cornyn’ is not a household word, and I just thought it would be helpful to remind people of what my record looks like.”